Ju Shin Jung East Charcoal BBQ @ East Coast Park Tennis Centre

According to the Korean expat community, and the food blogger community, Ju Shin Jung is considered one of the best - so DH and I, together with Baby, decided to hop over to the branch at East Coast Park to check it out. The original restaurant is at West Coast Highway, opposite Haw Par Villa. The branch at the east is next to Long Beach Seafood at the Tennis Centre in East Coast Park.


DH and I had considered leaving Baby at home, since a BBQ place didn't seem an ideal place to take Baby, with the smoke and hot grills. But he looked so forlorn as we left, clinging to the metal gate separating us, that DH and I relented and decided to take Baby along. We rationalised that, if the place really turned out to be unsuitable, we'd just go somewhere else.


The restaurant was located where a billiards and amusement centre used to be, so it was actually very spacious and open, and not at all cramped or smoky like I expected. Best thing was, there was a little corner at the side for the children with at least 3 kiddy ride machines. Baby loves kiddy rides! He was therefore happily entertained for the rest of our meal.

They served DH and I about 10 - 12 free side dishes which included spicy kimchi, non-spicy kimchi, fishcake, potato salad, chilled tofu, spicy octopus salad, cold kimchi soup. These side dishes were free of charge and refillable upon request. I think that is quite nice.


We ordered: Marinated beef short ribs (SGD32), beef tongue (SGD30), ginseng pork (SGD30) and a seafood pancake (SGD20).



Well, I think that servings were certainly generous, it was a whopping big plate, and the slices of meat filled the whole plate. However, the meats could have been more tender, given the prices that we were paying for it. Then again, I've come across cuts of meat that were just way too fatty, giving the desired tenderness and flavour but which are just way too taxing on the heart and arteries. I guess, these meats were lean so not as tender. They were quite flavourful nevertheless.


The service was a bit spotty too, since they were staffed mostly by mainland Chinese, who were eager to please but not that efficient. They mixed up our order and brought the wrong wine instead, they were supposed to grill our meats for us but disappeared for too long, so some of the meats were overcooked (beef tongue should be quickly seared and eaten!) and one waitress dropped a slice of the beef tongue down the grill (woah, that's at least 1 dollar down the drain, my dear girl!)

DH ordered a bottle of Matchsoon Gold (SGD30), a lovely Korean Plum Wine with gold flakes inside! Served cold, it was sweet and quite refreshing, not to mention really pretty with the cute flakes of gold dust floating around inside.

DH says the other place he has been to, Yakiniku Daidamon at Keypoint Plaza, Beach Road, serves the same food, but buffet style so we can eat as much as we like for only SGD60 per head. So we might check that place out sometime. Will keep you all updated!